Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, the only field trip I did to a factory back on Earth back when I was at school, was a car factory. So, I always wanted to go on tour to certain factories afterwards, the way the robots worked fascinated me.”

 

The little girl inside the painting is beckoning to me.

 

As if lead by her gesturing, my hand approaches her without any conscious control from me. The painting where she is, now has a lone door drawn in the field--it’s a very mysterious oil painting.

 

The girl opens the door and enters, then her tiny hand emerges from within the darkness of the door and she gestures again.

 

I stretch my hand out towards the frame of the painting--

 

***

“Morning?”

“Morning!”

 

Something made a little impact on my stomach along with cheerful voices.

 

When I open my eyes, I see that Tama and Pochi have dived down beside me, their arms draped across my stomach.

 

What a strange dream.

 

Last night, since I got a book that can help me decipher the explanation of Magic Tools, I’ve been sorting the Magic Tools almost until dawn, I wonder why I saw that dream.

 

“Good Morning.” I greet the two and stroke their hair, mussing it a bit--maybe it’s a bit too rough, the two hold my palms with both their hands and feet, and squirm around--they are play-biting me, and to their amusement, I pretend to feel pain.

 

“Mwuu.” Mia, who’s lying on my other side roughly rustles my hair--does she want to get cared for, or is this revenge for waking her up.

 

Even with all this fuss, Arisa is still sleeping beside me with an anguished face--I wonder what kind of dream she’s having.

 

Nana came in to tell us that breakfast is ready, I gently wake Arisa up and go towards the dining room. It seems that she’s still sleepy, Arisa acts a little spoiled. She still lays down, her arms lifted towards me, saying, “Carry me.”

 

So, I pick her up in a princess carry--she must have had a bad dream, she keeps scrubbing her face on my chest.

 

***

“Chevalier, about the schedules for visiting the workshops--” Shelna holds out a list of reservations for us. Yesterday, on the way to the Duke’s castle, she tells me that visiting workshops isn’t something that can be done on a whim--you have to make prior appointments.

 

Excluding the visit to Viscount Shimen’s Scroll workshop, that’ll be in 10 days, we can visit the other workshops in 2-5 days. The reason that the visit to the Scroll workshop is so late because we have to wait for Viscount Shimen to return from the Royal Capital first.

 

“Well then, is it alright for Chevalier and Karina to attend the dinner tonight?”

 

“Of course, it’s alright.” Karina answers Shelna’s question faster than I can.

 

The dinner that she’s talking about is the invitation from the previous Earl Walgock and his wife. Moreover, I’ve also been invited to a party organised by the Duke three days later.

 

I feel like some kind of disturbance will happen--I may just be being paranoid, but going by the Demon Lord and hidden society, it will soon escalate.

 

I’m fine with Nana as my partner for the dinner--but since she’s much less accustomed on the etiquette than Karina--there was also some pushing from Karina’s maids--so Karina will be going instead. I’m not complaining about that--Karina is much quieter and meeker, cuter, at these sorts of events.

 

“Are you really not going to participate in the Martial tournament? If a noble were to appear in the second qualifier, his social status will improve.”

 

“I won’t--I don’t care about my social status.”

 

“I really don’t understand you, Chevalier--” Shelna looked at me with a tilted head, “The arena for the entire tournament is in the town, and we’ve reserved a private room for the second qualifier--However, unfortunately, we aren’t able to secure a private room for the main match, so we’ve reserved seats in the shared room for nobles.”

 

It seems that it’s fine to be noisy in the private room, but it’s no good to have the slaves and Demi-Humans make noise in the shared room--it’d be impossible for Pochi and Tama to not make noise when they see the tournament, so I’ll find a way to get them in to see it anyway.

 

It looks like the second qualifier will be held in five days.

 

***

By borrowing two four-seater carriages, I go downtown with everyone--Karina decides to stay behind for some reason. We get off in a parking lot near the great wall, and walk from there.

 

“So many.” Mia shrinks down a little inside her robe, and walks closer to my side--she isn’t good with crowds, unless she is playing music.

 

“That’s right, due to the opening of the big tournament, this has become a melting pot of races.” I answer Mia, gently patting her clothed head, resulting in a quiet “Mwuu.” and her rubbing her head on my arm.

 

“Melting pot?”

“Is it delicious?”

 

Tama and Pochi ask distractedly, as they rapidly turn their heads, their tails and ears moving.

 

There are also a lot of people in the main street of the noble district, but it’s jam packed in the downtown--it really reminds me of Comicon, with all the strangely dressed, and varied people.

 

Seemingly influenced by that, all the girls are in high spirits.

 

First, let’s buy some thin clothing for the girls--everyone other than Lulu and I are wearing robes that cover them from head to toe, I feel hot just looking at them.

 

Liza reaches for a full set of metal armour. I tell her that lighter equipment is probably better, but she looks disappointed and says, ‘It’s the dress of a guard.”--I end up buying it for her.

 

The girls start moving around the food stalls, looking at the contents, I give some money to Liza and Lulu, who follow along behind the others--I give them permission to buy whatever they want to eat, but not to eat too much.

 

“Master, it’s a state of emergency.” Nana murmurs and takes my arm, leading me in a direction to everyone else. Lulu seems to notice, and I tell her, “I’ll come back soon”. I have the map so I could rejoin them whenever needed.

 

Nana pulls me to a place with some Ratman children--no wait, it seems to be different, their skin is glossy and their necks invert when they’re walking. According to the Heads-Up-Display, they’re Sea-Lion Kin.

 

“I cannot calculate the movement of that young organism. Even though it’s not efficient, I cannot take my eyes off them.” It seems that Nana wanted to see these children--certainly, one could say that their way of walking is cute. After she’s admired them for some time, I’ll take her back to everyone.

 

But the moment of happiness suddenly ends.

 

 

***

The instant Nana sees a big Tigerkin man kicking the Sea Lion Kin child, her atmosphere changed--Nana releases my arm, and jumps over the crowd of people and cut between the children and the big man.

 

It seems that she’s used Body Strengthening Nature Magic, but her activation has become quite a bit faster. I wonder if it’s because of her training with Liza and the others every day.

 

“What? A Human, huh? Get away, woman.”

 

“I refuse--I inform that excessive violence against young organisms is dangerous, it is prohibited.”

 

The big Tigerkin man waves his arm threateningly--

“You bastard, when did you appear?”

 

I catch his arm, restricting it before he could swing it--the big man scowls with a sharp glint in his eyes.

 

From what I saw, the Sea Lion Kin child, who didn’t see that he was going to hit the big Tigerkin man, and the cause of this quarrel was because the man’s trousers got dampened.

 

Although, the man’s trousers are already dirty enough, you can’t even tell that another stain has appeared.

 

“You must not use violence--for something as simple as this.” I add the second half of the sentence quietly, otherwise that would be a hypocritical statement.

 

“Is that so?” The big man kicks me while answering--I lightly jump to avoid it, flipping over him. I land in front of the man, while still holding his arm--I restrain him, with his arm in a very uncomfortable position.

 

Right at that time, someone swings a great sword at me.

 

“Master, it’s reinforcement.” Nana warns me.

 

Due to Space Grasp and Danger Sense Skills, I’ve noticed it even if I don’t hear Nana’s warning. I draw the Fairy Sword with my free hand and ward off the incoming great sword--while still restraining the big man.

 

“Oh? You’ve block my sword, while pinning Geri, huh?” A pure-white Tigerkin man appears from the darkness of the alley.

 

However, swinging a massive naked sword in the middle of downtown like this? I also did the same thing, but it was an act of self-defense, so please overlook it.

 

The spectators around us are clamouring--it seems that this guy is a participant of the second qualifiers.

 

“You’d be removed from the second qualifier if you cause bloodshed in the town, you know?” I say--rolling my eyes at him.

 

“Hm, you’re showing composure after receiving a surprise attack--you’re also a participant of the second qualifier, huh. Come to the finals, we’ll settle it there.”

 

I release the man that I was restraining, and step back--I don’t want to escalate it, and neither does the white Tigerkin man.

 

The spectators seem to be dissatisfied by the way things ended, but I don’t care.

 

“Master, master! The young organism is vomiting fluid out of his mouth--I appeal for emergency treatment.” Nana appeals monotonously behind me, I take a Magic Potion from storage and give it to the Sea Lion Kin to drink. He seems to have immediately recovered, I’m relieved. For some reason the spectators let out shouts of joy.

 

The Sea Lion Kin is really popular, huh?

 

The popular person keeps licking the bottle, even after it’s been emptied--it’s probably because I put sweet flavouring in the Magic Potion.

 

Nana holds up the Sea Lion children, one in each hand, “Master, requesting to make these children become ours.”

 

“No.”

 

“Master, please reconsider.”

 

“Rejected.”

 

It’s unusual for Nana to get depressed, but I can’t compromise here--I won’t bring innocent children to the Labyrinth, or into the trouble with Demons that I seem to be attracting.

 

When the sounds of a bell begin to resound--the children Nana is holding become flustered, so I tell Nana to release them. She hesitates for a bit, then resigns herself and releases them.

 

The children are going towards were Arisa and the others are, we follow along. Nana is holding both my hands tightly, and leading me along as she stares intently at the children.

 

There’s an unexpected person at the destination of the children.